Enso Ryu is a Ju Jitsu club founded by Sensei John Hart many years ago and has been run by Sensei Ian Woolston since April 2000. We are a club that enjoys training, what we strive for is a training environment which is relaxed enough to enjoy but still maintain the discipline and respect we link to the Martial Arts.

Ju jitsu is an ancient Japanese Martial Art that has seen something of a resurgence in recent years due to the emergence of Mixed Martial Arts competitions in a lot of ways. Go back 20 years and how many people had heard of Ju Jitsu, you couldn’t find anyone, however Judo, Karate, and Aikido that was a different story. UFC came along and forms of Ju Jitsu did very well and all of a sudden it started to grow in popularity.

At Enso Ryu what we believe is if it works, use it. We feel it’s important to keep a mix of the old and new, the old brings us tradition, it brings us history, guidelines but more importantly really, it brings us techniques that work. These techniques were developed for use on the battlefield, they were designed to save the users life, and take the opponents life in many instances, so they worked, surely then to ignore them would be foolish?

But, to ignore the modern world, surely that’s also a folly, I heard one story of an instructor teaching techniques that defended against a horseman wielding an axe, not your most common attack in modern times!!

What we strive for is that happy mix, also in techniques. So we train on the ground, striking using hands, elbows, head, legs, locks, chokes, strangles, throws and mix in a few pressure points to complete the mix.

We’ve a lot of experience in the club, yes, most of it started by me, but everyone is different and has their own strengths they play to and areas of interest they go off to develop, its something I actively encourage. Then, use that knowledge and bring this varied experience back in and let these students teach a session and pass on that knowledge.

Anyway, if you're interested in training in Ju-Jitsu in Scarborough, come and see us, we train Tuesdays and Thursdays, Juniors and Seniors. I don't mix Juniors and Seniors, there are certain techniques that I feel you just can't teach Juniors, knockouts, pressure points, wrist locks chokes and strangles, they just don't have the control.